sherry

noun

sher·​ry ˈsher-ē 

plural sherries

: a Spanish fortified wine with a distinctive nutty flavor

also : a similar wine produced elsewhere

Examples of sherry in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Pour that sherry down the toilet and don’t look back. —James Parker, The Atlantic, 25 Feb. 2025

Everything up to this point is par for the course, considering that the double sherry casks referred to on its label are PX and Oloroso. —Brad Japhe, Forbes, 23 Feb. 2025

Lobster Pappardelle made with a 1.25-lb lazy lobster, English peas, fresh pappardelle pasta and sherry thyme cream is also available for $45. —Staff Report, Hartford Courant, 11 Feb. 2025

As guests enjoyed their first course of mixed greens in a sherry vinaigrette, Hedges and James stood to address their guests. —Ian Malone, Vogue, 13 Feb. 2025

Word History

Etymology

alteration of earlier sherris (taken as plural), from Xeres (now Jerez), Spain

First Known Use

1584, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for sherry

• aerie
• airy
• arie
• barre
• cherry
• clary
• dairy
• eyrie
• faerie
• faery
• fairy
• ferry

Kids Definition

sherry

noun

sher·​ry ˈsher-ē 

plural sherries

: a wine with a nutty flavor

Etymology

named for Xeres (now spelled Jerez), a city in Spain where the wine was originally made

Word Origin

It is common to name wines after the part of a country where they are made. The wine called sherry today was first made in a town originally called, in Spanish, Xeres. The English approximation of the Spanish pronunciation was \ˈsher-ēz\, spelled sherris. After a time, people thought that sherris was a plural and so made a singular form, sherry, by cutting off the supposed plural ending. The \sh\ sound symbolized by x in Spanish (later by j) changed to a \ḵ\ or \h\, so that the modern Spanish pronunciation of Jerez is even less like English sherry.